Saint Mary's Health Care Gala Funds ALS Center

Grand Rapids (WZZM) - A party Saturday had the purpose of helping fund a unique healthcare partnership in West Michigan.

The Saint Mary's Health Care gala happened at the Steelcase Town Hall.

The event raised money to benefit the ALS Center.

The center came out of a partnership between Saint Mary's, Mary Freebed Rehabilitation Center and the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

"We really found a need in West Michigan," said Keri Larsen with Saint Mary's Health Care and the organizer of the gala. "There was a need for the ALS Center. We thought, now is the time for us to collaborate with some of the best in the area, and that's where we came up with teaming up with these three great organizations and this wonderful cause."

There were actually two ALS centers that were created because of this partnership.

The other is operated by the MSU Clinical Center in East Lansing.

ALS also called Lou Gehrig's disease, is a condition in which motor neurons in the brain begin to die. That causes the person to become more and more disabled.

It is a progressive disease that 30,000 people are living with in the United States.